


Showing Light

by Iki_teru



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen, KH Secret Santa 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 22:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9145561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iki_teru/pseuds/Iki_teru
Summary: Ten years ago Knight Enchanter Aqua left a dear friend in a bespelled sleep, deep in the heart of a castle made of lies. She never meant to be gone this long and when she feels the spell around the castle break she returns to find the castle ruined and a young blonde girl guarding her sleeping friend. Namine is nothing that Aqua could have expected but she just might be the key to turning the war against Xemnas, the man turned dragon, and returning Terra to his friends.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a (slightly belated) KH Secret Santa fic for tumblr user: castlenikki. This is written almost as an excerpt from a larger fic which does not yet exist but I feel this is strong enough to stand on its own. Happy holidays dear heart! I hope you enjoy your gift <3   
> (PS, self edited, as always if anyone notices any glaring errors feel free to point them out. Con-crit always welcome and appreciated)

_Here's to showing light,_

_To fists unraveling, to glass unshattering._

_To breaking all the rules, to breaking bread again._

_We're swallowing light, we're swallowing our pride._

_We're raising our glass, 'til we're fixed from the inside._ -Sleeping At Last "Taste"

 

 

 

 

 

Ven comes tumbling through the broken panel in the side of the barn where they're currently hiding, his hand waving about in triumph. "Got it!" He practically crows, thrusting the fine blue hairs first under Aqua's nose before dancing over to the mageling who can actually make use of them.

Naminé smiles, edges soft and eyes flicking up to rest somewhere around Ven's chin as she cups her hands gently around the item he delivers with three times the pomp it probably needs. 

Everything the girl does seems delicate and slow, like she's afraid if she moves too fast something will break in the fabric of the world. It's hard some days, Aqua thinks, trying to reconcile this cautious slip of a mageling child to the girl Aqua had met three months ago. That Naminé had been half wild; mud caked up to her knees and the simple white shift dress she wore then was torn and bloodied. That Naminé had stood firm over a prone and unconscious Ventus, brandishing a half rotted branch as a weapon, arms trembling from the sheer weight of it but a fire in her eyes nonetheless. 

That Naminé had drawn her shoulders square and demanded in no uncertain terms to know who Aqua was, how she had found them. That Naminé had helped set Castle Oblivion ablaze and was compassionate enough to pull the unconscious boy out of the chamber that should have been hidden to all but Aqua. 

Aqua blinks, coming back to herself. "There was no trouble?" She shifts, catching herself before she rushes to Ven's side. The urge to check him over is strong but she knows it's an unappreciated gesture. Ven had been a good sport about it in the beginning, had been too weak really to fend her desire to mother him off and understood that while  _ he  _ didn't remember how long he'd been asleep, Aqua had gone through ten long years without him. 

He was fine, she knew that logically but still, there could have been any manner of trouble in the tavern that he'd never fess up to. Aqua crosses her arms and pretends like she is whole and not on the edge of losing it. Ven is fine, is better than he had been in a long while. It was amazing really, how fast he bounced back, how  _ strong  _ he was now.  _ Everyone is changing around me and I'm the only one holding still, _ Aqua bites her lip and prays her expression doesn’t betray her thoughts. 

They didn't, or if they did Ven didn't notice. He snorts at her question, flipping one of his daggers idly. It’s the crystal one, sheer and capable of throwing rainbows from even the smallest amount of light and so sharp that it looked innocently dull (Aqua would never say it out loud, but she loved that blade of his so much more than the other one, the one of obsidian that seemed to just drink in light and give nothing back.) "None. I paid my copper for a drink, made enough small talk that nobody would take me as a legitimate threat and I took my cutting while the bartender served his dinner." Ven smiles, bright and broad and so familiar that Aqua half expected to see Terra come for them. "It's been a while but looks like I haven't lost my touch." He turns his attention to Naminé. "Is it enough?" 

The mageling looks up, blinking. Her tools are already laid out, the hair ground down into the powder she'd make her ink out of. "Hm? Oh, yes. Thank you again. Hair isn't the best but it's not the worse." She looks at the ink she’s working on, it was thin and pale. She hadn't had to make her own ink in so long she almost forgot what it was to use ash and hair. "Spittle would have been worse," she says mostly to herself. "Blood is best though." Naminé shivers, "I've had enough of working with blood for several lifetimes, I'm sorry." 

She would have done it, for Aqua and Ventus. For the boy who she found sleeping deep in the castle where she was kept captive, the boy she found while she wandered on the rare day she was left alone (the boy she knew the dragon creature was looking for and knew just from the sound of his breathing that she could never let him be found.) For the woman who came along to find them, half hysterical trying to get to Ven, desperate enough that when Naminé had demanded proof of her intentions, she had offered her  _ true  _ name. Naminé tries not to think about it, about the power Aqua had willingly given to her just so Naminé would let her by Ventus' side. She grinds the pestle down on the thin ink a little louder than necessary, chasing her own thoughts from her head. She would have worked with blood again for these two, because they hadn't demanded it of her and that made all the difference. 

Aqua knelt down beside her, which still makes Naminé a little nervous. Aqua was such a powerful mage, she was a  _ Knight Enchanter  _ for light's sake, and just being near her made Naminé's own magic vibrate beneath her skin. "What do you need now?" Aqua asks. She watches the ink intently which only serves to make Naminé feel more a stranger in her own skin. It was hard to remember that this, this memory magic of hers, was something rare, something not even someone like Aqua had encountered before. No wonder the knight was so interested in it. 

"A couple of your hairs, please. I'll be using the ink to insert you in his memories. It won't be very strong, but he's one of Xemnas' lieutenants, I'd be afraid to try anything too strong, he might get tipped off that something's not right." 

Sora hadn't, he had fallen for her spell so completely but that was blood magic and besides, he was only a young boy. Saïx was a grown man and trained against all sorts of things, there was no guarantee even this simple spell would work but it was their only chance, their only hope of gleaning information about Xemnas' movements. 

Xemnas, the man turned dragon who devoured hearts and cities in some mad bid for power. Legend said he had a different name once, when he was human. Aqua and Ven had a friend, the first heart the man had eaten, and who they had reason to believe could be saved from the creature. Naminé wasn't sure that she held the same confidence but she had seen many impossible things recently (Sora, eyes blue as the sky and heart just as big and he had  _ trusted  _ her, even after the truth had come out and she did this for him as much as for her new friends.) 

Ven passes his dagger and Aqua sheeres off a handful of hairs with a careful swipe. Naminé addes them to a different pot, crushing berries for the ink to make a muddled purple blue. She breathes deeply; once, twice, and on the third time feels the spell snap into power. 

"His name was Isa," she says, dipping her brush into the tree ash ink and making a rough shape of a person on the paper they had acquired. It was low grade and gritty and none of her supplies were as nice as she had grown spoiled to (gifts to keep the captive bird content, and hadn't that backfired in the end) but they were enough. "You haven't seen him since you were both much younger, he'll have vague memories of you, of a cousin who used to visit when he was a child. You were never particularly close but he was fond enough of you. He's a hard man now, seek him out first, when the bartender comes to ask you what you want to drink you must order something childish, something for this spell to latch onto. Warm milk and honey, if there's anything left of Isa inside him this will draw it forward enough to hopefully be helpful." So much depended on what ifs and uncertainties. 

Aqua blinks at her. "That's it?" 

Naminé tries not to feel like a failure. "Yes, I'm sorry." 

"Don't be!" Aqua surges forward, the two of them almost touching noses. "This is amazing! I can't do anything like this and I'm a master enchanter. Naminé, our stars were truly blessed when you came into our lives." Naminé has never seen Aqua this vibrant and alive, the years melt off her face and suddenly she looked barely older than Naminé herself. 

It was decided that Aqua should go alone, a weary traveler stumbling through dusty towns wasn't so unheard of these days and better to not chance Saïx recognizing Naminé. 

It didn't make it any easier to watch her leave though. Silence descends as Naminé cleans her brushes. She regards the crude, quick paintings she had done. Ven had said once that intent is sometimes enough to create a spell if a mage was strong. Naminé didn't know how strong she actually was but she took a moment to touch the edges of the paintings  _ Be enough, you must be enough _ . 

"He changed his name from Isa to Saïx huh?" Ven was trying to fill the emptiness and Naminé appreciated the effort even if she wasn't thrilled about the subject. 

"Everyone who joins the Organization has to give something up, prove their fealty to Lord Xemnas. Usually he takes their names, it's easiest and ties them all together." A magic in itself, the world was full of little spells like that. 

"He didn't take yours." and she hears the question and the edge of an accusation in the words. Naminé doesn't laugh although it's a near thing. 

"I didn't join, I was...a prisoner." Yes, that's close enough to the truth. Even she still had some secrets and there was no telling how Ven and Aqua would react to the truth of Naminé's existence. "Pressed into service," She continues, "and set aside when I wasn't needed." 

Ven changes subjects at break neck speed and Naminé wasn't sure if it was because her discomfort was so obvious or if he was just that type of person. "Would you want to learn how to fight?" 

She stills, hand fluttering over her brushes. She really needed to put them away if she didn't want them to get damaged. "Fight?" it came out as a whisper, a prayer, a butterfly shiver of hope. She allows herself one moment to think of the room from before, the white walls and tall windows and long long drop to the ground below and her constant rotation of guards. 

"Yeah," Ven is all grin now. "Even mages should learn to wield weapons right? I'll teach you to fight and Aqua can teach you more about magic. Not saying it's going to be easy though." 

This...this sounded like a long term thing. This sounded like they meant to keep her, that even after her task here was complete she'd... "You mean, I get to stay?" The words nearly choke her but she has to ask, Naminé can’t bear assuming the promise in Ven's tone, it will break her too completely when he said no. 

He looks confused and she misses his smile. "Well, yeah? I mean, unless there's somewhere else you want to go. I get that what we're trying to do is pretty scary and nobody would blame you for not wanting to get involved anymore than you already are but..." and here he has the audacity to blush and look nervous. "But you're nice, and I like being around you. A-and I know Aqua likes you too, she wasn't kidding when she said our stars were blessed because of you." 

"I would love if you taught me how to fight." Naminé thought of Ven's hands, of Aqua's hands too and how rough they were from carrying their weapons. She flexes her fingers, the skin is soft and she knows she will have blisters for weeks to come but she had never felt this before, this.... unbridled joy and light inside (and the little voice in the back of her head says  _ you have to tell them soon, you have to tell them what you are. You light shadow nonperson. _ ) 

Ven smiles and it was like the sun breaking through a cloud and there comes a long moment where they both just smile at each other, basking in the simple acknowledgement that they weren’t quite as alone anymore. Naminé thought her face might break, thought it might be okay if it did because she couldn't contain these feelings anymore. Ven steps off to the side, picking up two branches of roughly similar proportions. "Great!" He says and his voice is a little too loud for the quiet space but that was okay too. "We'll start with these, now the most important thing is your stance." and he was off, talking a mile a minute, too much information too fast and Naminé tries to keep up but it becomes apparent fairly quickly that Ven has never taught anyone before. 

That's okay, she thinks giddily, we have so much time for both of us to learn. 

Aqua would be back soon, their journey was only beginning. 


End file.
